slashgen or preslash

[jmtorres]

I wish people didn't feel like everything needed a pairing label. Also, just because you're slashing them in your own head, it doesn't necessarily come out that way in fic: Cas being a stalker is kind of canon, it's not necessarily a pairing thing. I say this because I am getting sort of frustrated at reading things that are supposedly a particular pairing and then nothing pairing-like happens. I've started getting excited at seeing NC-17 in the labels not because I'm particularly interested in reading about them having sex but because it means I can fairly reliably expect them to be having an actual relationship and not just burgers. Not that I'm not up for cute burger-eating fluff, but it's gen and it's misleading to claim it's not.

*sigh*

Comments

Re: Here via metafandom

[amaresu]

It's a delicate balance. I label a fic gen when I think any relationships are sufficiently backgrounded. As long as it's not the point of the fic or a major focus of the fic, then I'll label it as gen. For the most part.

One thing I just decided is awesome about the AO3 is that I can label a fic as gen and still put a pairing on it as well. Perhaps a bit confusing, but covers my purposes perfectly.